alt Hacker NewsWhy would launch costs be low? $10/kg is fantasy land. UPS won’t ship a kilogram across the country for $10.
And who wants spent nuclear fuel in low earth orbit? This is a far worse location for spent fuel than buried in a bunker. This is a worse location than Times Square.
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Why wouldn't they be low? In the limit, if launch becomes operationally similar to air travel, costs will be a few times propellant cost. And propellant is very cheap. LOX is almost free (the second cheapest industrial liquid after water) and liquid methane isn't very expensive either.
Low earth orbit would just be where it's transferred to something to carry it farther out, for example using solar-electric engines.
For all this, remember it isn't done immediately, it's done in (say) 300 years when the short lived fission products are mostly gone.
$10/kg isn’t fantasy land if we have fusion rockets, but then we don’t need fission power anymore. :)
> UPS won’t ship a kilogram across the country for $10.
I can purchase produce grown on a different continent for less than that at the grocery store so something isn't right here.